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Anthony Halim edited this page Jul 23, 2020 · 6 revisions

Source Academy Game Storywriter guide

A guide to writing stories for Source Academy game

Getting Started

Important keywords to know as a story writer

  • Source Academy Game

    • Interactive visual novel representing students' CS1101S journey
    • Comprised of chapters

  • Chapters

    • Main division of the Source Academy game
    • Released on specified open date (can be specified in Ground Control)
    • Comprised of several checkpoints

  • Checkpoints

    • Within a chapter, checkpoints are played in progression as previous checkpoint is completed.
    • Basic 'programmable' unit of Source Academy story; every checkpoint is specified using a text-based CSV
    • Checkpoints are played in order based filename e.g. chapter0.0txt > chapter0.1txt > > chapter0.2txt
    • Checkpoint is a storywriter's tool to place the student in an entirely new scenario within the course of a single chapter.
    • Enables writers to provide students with different set of objectives and also a new map with a different set of locations/objects/dialogues to interact with.

Story Simulator

Story Simulator provides a set of tools to help writers generate the .txt file and simulate a single checkpoint, which they can then upload.

Object Placement

  • Enables you to rearrange objects, bounding boxes and background in the scene and capture their coordinates and asset paths.

  • How to use:

    1. Navigate to Story Simulator
    2. Click on Object Placement in the main menu.

  • Tools available

    • At side panel:

      1. Asset Selection - The Asset Selection on the side panel is a place to look for assets you'd like to place on scene. You can click to open/close folders and click on assets to select it.
      2. Asset Viewer - Displays image that you selected with Asset Selection to let you visualise it before placing it on scene.

    • At game screen's Object Placement:

      1. Background Paint Bucket - Paints background on scene. To use, select an image from the /location folder of the Asset Selection section and click on the paint bucket to see the new background.
      2. Add Selected Object - Adds more foreground images to the scene. To use, select an object from any folder of the Asset Selection section and click on the paint bucket to see the new background.
      3. Bounding box - Lets you draw bounding boxes. To use, click on the tool and drag to draw rectangles on scene.
      4. Drag or resize - Lets you drag things around the scene. To use, click on the tool and start dragging objects and bounding boxes.
      5. Print coordinates - Lets you see coordinates on hover and print them out in the console. To use, click and look at console to see the .txt
      6. Erase all - Erases everything on scene. Be careful when using this as there is no Undo button.

Checkpoint Simulator

  • Loads your .txts in the browser and runs the .txt file using actual game engine

  • How to use:

    1. Navigate to Story Simulator
    2. Click on upload .txt button on the side panel
    3. Choose the .txt file that you want to see played by the game engine
    4. In the game screen's Main Menu, click on 'Simulate Checkpoint' and play your story.

Note: Do note that your game state is not saved to backend and txts are not uploaded. You may upload them once you're satisfied using Asset Upload (coming soon).

Asset uploading

  • Enables you to upload and delete assets (images, sounds, and checkpoint .txts) that you'd like to be included into Source Academy Game.
  • Do note that the name for .txt files is specified as chapterX.Y where X is chapter number and Y is checkpoint number. The name of the chapter is used to determine its sequencing, so be careful! Details of how sequence is determined can be seen here
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